Four MILLION Page Views at Adventures in YA Publishing Giveaway

by Martina Boone

It’s snuck up on us. Four million. That’s a heck of a number, right? It seems like just yesterday when Marissa Graff and I heard an agent say that writers had to blog and said to each other, “What do we blog about?”

It’s been a long journey since then. This blog has gained some incredible new team members, and we’ve lost a few who’ve gone on to attend to other things in their lives. We’ve seen followers and contest participants become New York Times bestsellers, get six-figure book deals, get quietly satisfying or vindicating book deals, or go on to publish indy with great success. At Adventures, we feel like we get to participate a little bit in each of those victories–because they ARE victories.

This business is both wonderful and daunting. Heartwarming and heartbreaking. I don’t know anything that’s like it. We pour our souls into a book for months or years, and then, more often than not, we throw all those emotions, characters, and entire worlds in a dark drawer of our hearts and computer hard drives. Actors don’t pour years into a play or even a film without getting paid. Musicians very rarely work on the same song for years.

But actors and musicians don’t work in isolation. They get guidance, coaching, mentoring, feedback, and support. And that’s what we try to do here at Adventures. That’s the vision. To bring in all the different aspects of building a long-term successful career writing YA fiction, including:

Giveaways, covers, and descriptions of all the books that teens are loving as they release — i.e., market research. : )
Interviews with the authors of those books about what they love in those books.
Advice from those authors about their journey to publication and the most valuable advice that they’ve received in their careers.
Actionable tips from those authors about specific aspects of what made the difference in moving them from aspiring author to publication.
Detailed and meaty craft-related writing advice.
Ask the Pub Pro features where you can get real, detailed information to your specific questions.
Information and wish-lists from agents and editors about what they’re looking for.
Contests to help tune your ear (and prose) to what’s working and exciting to readers and publishing professionals
The 1st 5 Pages Writing Workshop to hone your opening and/or critiquing skills over three drafts with three professional mentors and an agent, including a brand-new pitch feature.

Whew. That’s a lot.

And it doesn’t happen all by itself.

So would y’all please, PLEASE, give a big hand to the people who work the magic behind the curtain?!

You all (hopefully) already know Lisa Gail Green, Susan Sipal, Erin Cashman, Jocelyn Rish, and Shelly Zevlever, who have expanded the team in the past couple of years. Recently, we’ve added new members Kristin Sandoval, Sam Taylor, Lindsey Hodder, Sandra Held, and Anisaa Denise. Several of these amazing people do double duty with our sister site, YASeriesInsiders.com, which is a group site run by a combination of authors, bloggers, and readers who celebrate the love of reading through young adult series books and an intersection of different fandoms.

Please stop by our About Us page to learn more about all these amazing people. It’s also been sad to say farewell to the people who haven’t been able to maintain the time commitment for AYAP with everything else they’ve got going on.

Running a blog like this is a professional endeavor. It truly is. It’s a way to affirm not just our love of young adult books and beautiful writing, but also our respect for the time of the professionals involved and our commitment to the business of publishing. We learn a lot by doing this, and we make great friends and contacts along the way. It’s a support system, a joy, and a responsibility.

That said, we have opening for more contributors. If you’re interested, please reach out to us at ayaplit (at) gmail dot com.

Your Turn

Please tell us what features you love best at Adventures and how long you’ve been coming to this blog! Leave a comment below!

Giveaway Time

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Happy reading and writing, everyone! Thank YOU for supporting AYAP all these years!

Hugs and more hugs,

Martina

Martina Boone

Martina Boone is the award-winning author of the romantic southern gothic Heirs of Watson Island series, starting with COMPULSION from Simon & Schuster, Simon Pulse and the Celtic Legends Collection of novels set in Scotland, Cornwall, and Ireland beginning with LAKE OF DESTINY. She’s passionate about improving lives through literacy and the love of books, and she runs the Compulsion For Reading program to distribute books to underserved schools and libraries.

She lives with her husband, children, Shetland Sheepdog Phinney, and Zoey the lopsided cat, and she enjoys writing contemporary romantic fiction with a hint of magic set in small towns and beautiful places. When she isn’t writing, she’s addicted to travel, horses, skiing, chocolate flavored tea, and anything with Nutella on it.

Post © Martina Boone and/or Adventures in YA Publishing. All rights reserved.

Posted: Aug 25, 2015

Category: Imported from AYAP

Tags: Martina Boone | YA Fiction Giveaways

Welcome to Transmedia Mutts

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Thank you to the women who started Adventures in YA Publishing and ran it for years. AYAP and TMM have merged to form Adventures in PUPlishing, and the legacy AYAP posts are now part of TMM. Click here to learn more about the earlier AYAP team.

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← Previous: SIX New Release Giveaways, plus author interviews and what's new this week of 8/24 Next: DEFEATING THE TIME MONSTER By Wendy Higgins, Author of The Sweet Evil Series →

The first slide is an animation of a science/magic room in a castle. A cartoon character of a mad-scientist looking man in in the foreground says: “Hello! Dr. Frankenstein here to say, Well Done on kid lit zombie week! I’m an expert at reviving the dead, and let me assure you, with a little spark, you can bring dead projects to life. Especially if you dig up parts from other dead things. I’ll even let you have a sneak peek at my laboratory’s store room to consider potential parts for your dead project. If you see something with a yellow glow, that means you should click it. Have fun!”

He points to the right side of the screen and a new scene slides in of a castle science/magic storage room. There are various cartoon Frankenstein body parts scattered around. Some of them have a yellow glow. If you click on them, the images below appear (I’ve added alt text to them, so I hope it works).

The Heart of your story is the main character. The protagonist is the beating core that truly brings your story to life. If your MC doesn't make kids (and their grown-ups) care within the first few pages, your story will flatline. </p>
<p>Your main character needs to be:<br />
• Relatable enough for kids to see themselves<br />
• Unique enough to stand out in the slush pile<br />
• Active enough to drive the story<br />
• Memorable enough to survive multiple readings at bedtime</p>
<p>Where do you find this amazing donor heart? It might be the very thing you loved so much about the manuscript you want to revive. It might be the younger sister from your shelved YA novel. Or maybe it’s the hilarious kid you blogged about meeting at a school visit. Find a character beating with potential and place it in the center of your story.<br />

The Brain of your story is the theme or central message. The theme is the big idea that controls everything else. Picture books are more than stories - they're tiny life lessons disguised with humor and heart.</p>
<p>But your theme needs to be:<br />
• Subtle enough not to trigger the dreaded "didactic" rejection<br />
• Clear enough for a four-year-old to grasp<br />
• Universal enough to speak to both kids and adults<br />
• Fresh enough to prevent agents and editors from responding with "Not another sharing/bedtime/first-day story!"</p>
<p>Check your other dead manuscripts to see if there is a recurring theme, something that really seems to be speaking to you. Find the bit of poetry you scribbled on the back of a receipt to see what theme inspired it. Reread the pep talk you texted your critique partner at 1am. Pick the theme that will drive your story, giving it purpose, direction, and deeper meaning.<br />

The Legs of your story is the plot. Not to be confused with a grave plot.🤪 The plot is what keeps everything upright and moving, as well as providing support for all the other elements. You have very few words to use in a picture book, so you need to do a lot with each plot point.</p>
<p>In general, your plot should:<br />
• Hook readers fast<br />
• Build tension that a child can follow<br />
• Create page turns that feel natural<br />
• Wrap up in a way that satisfies</p>
<p>You can borrow a plot twist (a leg) from one manuscript and the opening (the other leg) from a different manuscript. Consider if the subplot of the middle grade novel you trunked would work better as a picture book. Or maybe your Facebook post about a disastrous camping trip could become a story for kids. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you have your storyline.

The Arms of your story are the side characters.

The Torso of your story is the setting. Setting helps a story breathe and connects all the elements of the story. It isn't just where your story lives, it's what makes your story ALIVE. It's the difference between "this happened in a park" and "this happened in that park, the one with the twisty slide that burns your legs and the creaky swing that sounds like a baby crying.”</p>
<p>Your setting should:<br />
• Make your character's world feel real<br />
• Contain your story in a way that makes sense to young readers<br />
• Connect different scenes and moments organically<br />
• Give your illustrator enough room to add visual subplots</p>
<p>Half-finished manuscripts are a great place to dig up settings, since you worked out the place details before the plot petered out. Or maybe you had to cut a second fantastic location from your chapter book. You can also revisit the detailed caption from your Instagram carousel documenting your tour of that delish candy shop. Disinter a robust setting that can house all of your story's vital organs.

After you press the Click When Done circle button, the lights flash with the sound of electricity buzzing. Then the screen goes black and lightning zaps across the screen with the sound of thunder.

The screen then lights up to show the storage room, and all the Frankenstein pieces have been assembled into the whole monster. An upbeat song plays in the background. Then a speech bubble pops up with the words, “I’m alive! I’M ALIVE!” Then the screen goes to black.

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